Child Safety

At Mesivta Lev Tmimim, your child’s total wellbeing is of utmost importance. We commit to ensuring your child’s safety in all areas to the best of our ability. We have developed the following employee code of conduct, that all staff are trained in and must accept for employment at MLTL. These policies are based on the Guidelines for Schools prepared by the Education Office of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch. If you have any questions in this regard, please don’t hesitate to contact the Hanhola directly.

All potential staff must agree to a criminal background check before employment at MLTL.

Appearance: School Personnel when on school grounds and duties must appear clean, neat, and appropriately attired.

Alcohol and Tobacco: use of tobacco and/or alcohol in the presence of children or parents, or at any time during working hours is prohibited.

Profanity: inappropriate jokes, sharing intimate details of one’s personal life, and any kind of harassment, in the presence of children or parents, are prohibited.

School Personnel will refrain from intimate displays of affections toward others in the presence of children and parents.

School Personnel must be free of physical and physiological conditions that might adversely affect children’s physical or mental health. If any doubt, an expert should be consulted.

School Personnel will be positive role models for youth by maintaining an attitude of respect, loyalty, patience, courtesy, tact and maturity.

In order to protect the school staff, volunteers and program participants, at no time during a school program may a school employee or volunteer be alone with a single child where he cannot be observed by others.

When School Personnel supervise children, they should position themselves in a way that other staff can see them.

Children shall never be left unsupervised.

All rooms and offices in which staff interact with children shall have windows and/or cameras when applicable.

Inappropriate touching: School Personnel will respect children’s rights not to be touched in ways that make them feel uncomfortable, and respect their right to say no at any time.

Inappropriate touching will not be tolerated and may be the cause for immediate dismissal.

All children are equal. School Personnel will respond to children with respect and consideration and treat all children equally, without regard for sex, race, religion, disability or culture.

School Staff and/or Volunteers are not to transport school children alone in private vehicles, unless they have explicit permission from the school principal or Executive Director.

Children will be instructed to use seat belts where available.

As our underlying mission is to ensure the emotional wellbeing of the Talmid, we understand the importance of communication between parents and children. And we strongly encourage every Bochur to be in close contact with parents regularly. We recognize the difficulty to do so when a child is away from home and the Brocha of cell phones is a welcome development in this area.

However, one of the most important commitments we make to the parents of our Talmidim is to provide their son with a safe environment. We want every parent to feel confident that when they send their son away from home, he will not be exposed, Ch”V, to unhealthy influences and content. Likewise, it is obvious that today’s devices are a tremendous distraction that makes learning and growing as a Tomim even more difficult.

In order to balance both of these needs, we have found that a strictly enforced policy regarding content and usage, with a liberal allowance of possession of the phone is an effective means of achieving these goals.

As such, we allow Bochurim to have their own cell phones and they may keep them throughout the week. At the same time, we are very serious about the type of device and the content available on these devices, as well the times they may be used.

A Tomim in our Yeshiva may only have a phone which is NOT a “smart-phone” and has no ability to connect to the internet (including Cell/Wifi or any other connection). Simply canceling the Internet service on the phone’s line is not sufficient. Furthermore, phones may not have any texting service available on the phone. We understand that texting is a very convenient and useful means of communication with your child, but at the same time, it is a significant distraction and risk as well. Adhering to this policy enables us to allow Bochurim to keep their phones with them throughout the week in a practical way, thereby enabling parents to reach their children much more flexibly than the other option of taking phones away during the week.

We feel that most parents will appreciate the adherence to this policy and the peace of mind that they will have knowing that their son will not be exposed to unhealthy content from peers. If this policy will be difficult for you to accept, please reconsider wether this is the best Mosad for your son.

Please feel free to click here to contact the Hanhola to discuss this further if you wish.